The Night Mail

[J. S. Bach]

10 hours ago, BR60103 said:

Even Land's End is north of the conjoined United States, as well as most of the population of Canada.

Reminds me of when I lived in Baltimore and was shoveling lots of snow in winter that we were on approximately the same latitude as the Riviera!

[jamie92208]

4 hours ago, Northmoor said:

For coal miners, trust in your workmates was everything so I could imagine the chap would have been "sent to Coventry" over his behaviour as well. 

 

@polybear

You are absolutely right about the trust issue.  When I was an Inspector at Pontefract in the late 90's we had a lot of ex miners on the shifts. I was chatting to one one evening,he had been on the picket lines in 84/85 and there was even video of him throwing bricks at the police.  I asked him how he had even thought about joining his hated enemy.  His reply was interesting.  He said it was the only job that he knew where there was the same team spirit and dependence on his mates, that he had felt down the pit.  He said that he knew that if he shouted for help, everyone on duty would bust a gut to get to his aid.  

 

In generate former miners made very good and reliable officers as they were used to using their initiative and taking responsibility.  Good people to work with. 

 

Jamie

[rockershovel]

6 hours ago, Northmoor said:

For coal miners, trust in your workmates was everything so I could imagine the chap would have been "sent to Coventry" over his behaviour as well. 

 

@polybear you may be right but these are the people, or any other contractors, who always get the blame for such incidents.  Everyone wants to assume their own permanent colleagues wouldn't do such a thing, when the bad apples (every organisation above a certain size will have one) will happily rely on someone else to deflect blame to.

Contract cleaners are much blamed but rarely responsible, in my experience. Most are non-British and wouldn't touch the contents of a typical office fridge. They are also frequently subject to dismissal without notice or redress and can't afford accusations of that nature. 

[SM42]

Mrs SM42 obviously doesn't like my work colleagues. 

 

She has left me sprouts for my dinner vegetables tonight. 

 

Andy

Edited June 18 by SM42

[rockershovel]

1 minute ago, SM42 said:

Mrs SM42 obviously doesn't like my work colleagues. 

 

She gas left me sprouts for my dinner vegetables tonight. 

 

Andy

What, Xmas already? 

[Hroth]

7 minutes ago, rockershovel said:

What, Xmas already? 

 

They do need to go on about now...  🤪

 

[SM42]

I think they've been on since boxing day.

 

Andy

[Happy Hippo]

I have had an uneventful day that was mainly taken up applying Cuprinol garden colours to much timber.

 

A few weeks back we had a power cut and I was unable to access the garage as the side door was blocked from the inside.

 

Having cleared the blockage I went and got the sole surviving key to unlock, only for the key to snap in the lock.

 

I ended up using an angle grinder to gently cut the bottoms of the hinge pins.  The pins were then tapped out and the lock removed.

 

The door was then rehung, and is temporarily sealed shut whilst I await the arrival of a new mortice lock.

 

My forced air respirator arrived this morning, and although I've not tried it with the machine tools yet, when it is on and running, you get a cool breeze inside the facemask which is most pleasant.

 

A blitz on sanding tomorrow, weather permitting, will see it getting a more substantial test. 

[AndyID]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

My forced air respirator arrived this morning, and although I've not tried it with the machine tools yet, when it is on and running, you get a cool breeze inside the facemask which is most pleasant.

 

 

I should probably get one of those. The deck railings I welded need spray painting.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Afternoon all,

 

It’s been a while since I last frequented this notorious din of mammals. 
 

Since I was last here, I’ve managed by some miracle graduate high school and will hopefully be getting an internship at a local museum before going off college, whenever that may be.

 

In other news, my beam engine was finally finished in April which left a massive void (not really, it’s very small actually) on my workbench which needed filling. So a few days after I graduated I began constructing my new engine, seen below.

 

 

 

This will be a twin low pressure compound marine engine. It’s similar to a triple expansion engine, but has no intermediate cylinder and instead has two LP’s. This will be live steam, and built from scratch as i can’t afford a proper one. 
 

I started construction about 6 weeks ago, so good progress has been made so far. As I still don’t have a milling machine, the slots for the crankshaft bearings and the bearing pedestals were milled on a friend of mines Aciera Mill up in Kansas City. It was a wonderful machine to use but the spindle bearings were on their last legs.

 

 

The main bearings are made from the correct bronze and are split as per full size practice. Here’s a shot of the test bar (a piece of precision ground and hardened steel) in the pedestals to check alignment before they were bored to final size to accept the bearing shells.

 

 

Once I was back Tulsa I began work on making the crankshaft. This is built up from silver steel (for the journals and crank pins) and cold rolled bar which was cut to form the webs. These were profiled on my Palmgren Z axis vise attached to the Rivett lathe.

 

 

Here is the mostly finished crankshaft after running in. I had not yet cut the area between the webs out or pinned them in place yet as I wanted the strength of the full bar for running in.

 

 

The next step was not exactly mission critical but it looks nice, and that is the turning gear. I cut the teeth on the flywheel using a 3/8-16 tap and then made a corresponding thread count worm, which makes for a very small but fully functional turning gear if a pin vise is put over the square shank on the worm arbor.

 

 

 

So that brings us up to the present. The next step is to make the piston rods, pistons and connecting rods after which I can begin work on the valves.

 

Douglas

 

 

 

 

[AndyID]

25 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Afternoon all,

 

It’s been a while since I last frequented this notorious din of mammals. 
 

Since I was last here, I’ve managed by some miracle graduate high school and will hopefully be getting an internship at a local museum before going off college, whenever that may be.

 

In other news, my beam engine was finally finished in April which left a massive void (not really, it’s very small actually) on my workbench which needed filling. So a few days after I graduated I began constructing my new engine, seen below.

 

 

 

This will be a twin low pressure compound marine engine. It’s similar to a triple expansion engine, but has no intermediate cylinder and instead has two LP’s. This will be live steam, and built from scratch as i can’t afford a proper one. 
 

I started construction about 6 weeks ago, so good progress has been made so far. As I still don’t have a milling machine, the slots for the crankshaft bearings and the bearing pedestals were milled on a friend of mines Aciera Mill up in Kansas City. It was a wonderful machine to use but the spindle bearings were on their last legs.

 

 

The main bearings are made from the correct bronze and are split as per full size practice. Here’s a shot of the test bar (a piece of precision ground and hardened steel) in the pedestals to check alignment before they were bored to final size to accept the bearing shells.

 

 

Once I was back Tulsa I began work on making the crankshaft. This is built up from silver steel (for the journals and crank pins) and cold rolled bar which was cut to form the webs. These were profiled on my Palmgren Z axis vise attached to the Rivett lathe.

 

 

Here is the mostly finished crankshaft after running in. I had not yet cut the area between the webs out or pinned them in place yet as I wanted the strength of the full bar for running in.

 

 

The next step was not exactly mission critical but it looks nice, and that is the turning gear. I cut the teeth on the flywheel using a 3/8-16 tap and then made a corresponding thread count worm, which makes for a very small but fully functional turning gear if a pin vise is put over the square shank on the worm arbor.

 

 

 

So that brings us up to the present. The next step is to make the piston rods, pistons and connecting rods after which I can begin work on the valves.

 

Douglas

 

 

 

 

 

Is the turning gear for running in?

[PhilJ W]

5 hours ago, SM42 said:

I think they've been on since boxing day.

 

Andy

What year?

[Florence Locomotive Works]

55 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Is the turning gear for running in?

No, it’s just a little detail. They were used on the full size to turn the engine over for maintence purposes.

 

[AndyID]

4 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

No, it’s just a little detail. They were used on the full size to turn the engine over for maintence purposes.

 

 

Ah! How was it disengaged?

[jamie92208]

5 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

No, it’s just a little detail. They were used on the full size to turn the engine over for maintence purposes.

 

I watched a video about the pumping engines at Hampton Court and they used turning gear to get them into the right position for starting. 

 

Jamie 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

2 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Ah! How was it disengaged?

On that specific engine in the photo I’m not sure. Usually the worm was hinged to move in and out of engagement as needed.

[AndyID]

1 minute ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

On that specific engine in the photo I’m not sure. Usually the worm was hinged to move in and out of engagement as needed.

 

That makes sense. Absent some miraculous lubricant I don't see how the gear-wheel could ever make the worm rotate 😀

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Just now, AndyID said:

 

That makes sense. Absent some miraculous lubricant I don't see how the gear-wheel could ever make the worm rotate 😀

It works the other way around. 

[AndyID]

Just now, Florence Locomotive Works said:

It works the other way around. 

 

Yes, turning the worm will rotate the crankshaft, but I doubt the crankshaft could ever rotate the worm. What's odd is that there doesn't seem to be any way to disengage the worm.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

10 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Yes, turning the worm will rotate the crankshaft, but I doubt the crankshaft could ever rotate the worm. What's odd is that there doesn't seem to be any way to disengage the worm.

Yes that is strange. Perhaps the shaft the worm rotates on is removed and then the worm slid out?

[AndyID]

4 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Yes that is strange. Perhaps the shaft the worm rotates on is removed and then the worm slid out?

 

Beats me too. With that amount of mechanical advantage there is just too much friction for the gear to rotate the worm. Your model should confirm that.

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Afternoon all,

 

It’s been a while since I last frequented this notorious din of mammals. 
 

Since I was last here, I’ve managed by some miracle graduate high school and will hopefully be getting an internship at a local museum before going off college, whenever that may be.

 

In other news, my beam engine was finally finished in April which left a massive void ...snip...

 

Douglas

I have a few O scale "projects" that could adequately fill a void; large or small! 😎

[J. S. Bach]

And with that said, Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[BR60103]

I only remember two problems with the afterwork staff.

We were getting a funny small from the potted plants and a bit of mould was starting.  Turned out they were dumping the dregs from coffee/tea cups in the plants but the plants were made of plastic.

At another site, we found in the morning that there were tea bags in the electric kettle.  It looked as if someone was making tea by putting the bag in the kettle and boiling it.

 

[iL Dottore]

19 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

The '24 hour'* Tesco's have disappeared since covid, they now all shut at midnight and re-open at 6am. The only places open 24/7 are Motorway services as they are contractually obliged too.

*They were never open 24/7 as they and other supermarket chains claimed due to Sunday trading laws.

I don’t see the problem with that. Apart from the 12 midnight to 8am shift being potentially the most dangerous (due assorted scrote activities - shoplifting being the least of them) I doubt that it was cost effective, I doubt that you get many customers desperate for a tin of beanz at 3am in the morning.

 

The Swiss have an elegant solution: whilst - generally - shops are closed of a Sunday, the shops at/within the railway stations are open. The big supermarket chains (Migros, COOP) have stores and prepared food - such as sandwiches and (Swiss) sausage rolls - sells well, with many people buying a quick breakfast or a lunch before entraining and travelling to their hiking/skiing/biking destination.

 

It’s a win-win situation: peace and quiet on Sunday* in the rest of the city/town/village and the gods of commerce are satisfied and the “Oh **** I forgot to buy XXX and the in-laws/friends/relative/the Boss are coming for lunch” dismayed and desperate are saved.

 

* excluding the noise of cows, cockerels and church bells